Father's Day and A Prayer for RAIN

What did you do for you father today? A call at 8 in the morning? Send him another God-awful tie? Take him to his favorite BBQ joint? Well, of course the Waddell's couldn't do things that easy... The complete and utter lack of rain over the last nine months forced our hand... Gotta move some cows, cut the herd... Hay costs too damn much, so do Range Cubes.

So Dad asked that Liz and I come down to help sell cows this weekend. I rolled out of Austin at 5:15 on Friday, skirted around town on the Tollway (best invention ever! 45 minutes to Buda, if I had been on I-35 would have taken 2-3x that long!) A couple of stops along the way for hydration purposes (its gonna be hot on Saturday...) and I hit the 444 about 8:15PM. No big plans for the evening. Pour a Maker's and water and then settle down for the night.

Up early on Saturday. Load up the doctoring kit, might as well "work" calves at the same time. Grab a couple sacks of cubes, head down to the pens. Wait... where are the hot shots and the whips? No where to be found. Well, there is the one hot shot that is broken, maybe I can fix it. Take it apart, re-seat the motor, new batteries... it "kinda" works.

Manage to get in about 30 cows and 20 calves... Separate out the "keepers" which are cows with young calves or good young cows, and then cull out the calves from the cows... more like whacking them with the broken hot shot... but get it done. Break the calves into the group of 5 that we are going to ship to market, the 6 that need to be worked, and the rest back into the pasture. Get the young calves vaccinated, banded the bulls, ear tags. Some take a couple of tries as they jumped out of the calf table... but we got it done. Got 17 cows ready to go to market, 5 calved. Time to get them set up with water for the evening, and head over to Blackcreek.

We go to Blackcreek, get the majority penned. Including 3 calves that needed to be shipped 6 weeks ago. But as soon as we get in to close the pen gates, off they go. DAMNIT. Oh well, we have a few mama cows and calves to ship here anyway. Maybe they will come up again Sunday morning.

Remember me saying that we hadn't had any rain in nine months? Well yeah, we have NO GRASS. ZERO. ZILCH. So what do we do? Only two options. One, sell cows. We are doing that. But what about the rest we aren't selling? Gotta buy hay. But cows have a tendency to destroy hay on the ground. And that means wasted money. How do you solve that? Hay rings. You put a ring around the hay. The cows can't stand on it. They eat it instead. So, we head to Tractor Supply in Castroville to pick up 3 hay rings (some assembly required...) Might as well pick up a new hot shot. Of course, it cannot be that easy. In order to prevent snot nosed kids from shocking the shit out each other in the store (and having parents sue) TSC keeps the battery packs separate from the prod ends... but they cannot find them. Hot Shot fail. Guess we have to go to Hondo.

A quick stop a Mumme's, and Hot Shot crisis averted. Also pick up a new motor for the "fixed" one. And we need some stuff for dinner. So, HEB or Wal-mart? Well, in addition to food, we need a replacement ratchet strap for the one that jacked up in the parking lot of Tractor Supply, and some ammo for my Sig that my sister and I are going to shoot that evening. Guess its Wal-mart. Ugh. But its one stop. Get in, get out... well, get out after waiting in line for 20 minutes as the idiots of Wal-mart fuck up my universe. But we get out. Back to Yancey. Sister is waiting out there.

We do the "some assembly" required part of the hay rings, head off to the creek to do some shooting, grab a little dinner... redfish tacos, slaw, and black beans (sorry no pics.) Dad says there is a bar back towards Moore called the R Bar... let's go find it. Well, we have no idea where it is... finally, on the third pass, we find it. Go inside. Wow is the only way I can describe OUR BAR. 3 pool tables, a karaoke machine (no one singing) and a juke box. And beer. Cold beer. But no Shiner. Well, nothing is happening... one beer and we are out of there. Back to the ranch, back to the free whiskey. And bed. Gonna be another early morning.

You know, when we haul cattle, nothing ever goes easy. Flat tires, bad brakes, SOMETHING. Might as well get it out of the way early today. Hook up the trailer, fix the slide door (its catching on the floor brace) and start walking to gate to let Dad take the truck out. Hear this horrible screeching sound. Oh fuck, now what??? Of course, Dad "doesn't hear it..." Well, no one raised the jack from the trailer, its dragging the ground. And pulled the Gooseneck hitch off the ball. Guess I have to fix that. Ends up being an easy one. Jack up the trailer, re-seat the hitch. Drop the jack. Back to work.

Head over to Blackcreek. Cows in the trap... of course the escapees from the other day don't show up. Oh well, load what we got. Next trick? Get them into the loading pens. Easier said than done. Well, if you can't drive them in, trick them in. Create a trail of cubes. Perfect. 3 cows, 8 calves. First load. Move them to Hondo. Drop off at the Union Livestock Commission. Time to make some money (well, Monday is the time... today is just the drop off.)

Blackcreek done. Yancey next. 3 loads (9 cows, 8 cows, and 5 calves.) Lots of driving (30 minutes each way on the trip.) Dad lacks the skill to back up a trailer (seriously) so I do all the driving.

Did I mention I have a 3 hour drive back to Austin later this afternoon. Guess the ass is gonna be sore. Long day. But get all the cows moved. A good Father's Day. Stop in at Hermann Sons' for a late lunch (Alfred's Pepper Steak is still that bomb...) Head back to Yancey, collect my gear, and drive home to Austin.

To all my friends on the Texas coast... don't take this the wrong way. I hope you get slammed by THREE hurricanes this season. All right up Corpus Christi's ass. That's the only thing that is going to break the damnable drought. We need about 3 weeks of rain. Badly. Hay if freaking expensive. $75 a bale and its going up all summer (kind of like gas... supply and demand, right?) If we don't get some rain soon, we are gonna have to sell the rest of the cows. The place already looks like south Baghdad... scorched earth. So, please, pray to whichever Deity you choose. Just do it LOUD. WE NEED RAIN.

Help out your local ranchers! PRAY... Thanks!!!

So, how was the BBQ on the tie while calling Dad collect?